Olympians in Hot Water Over Pictures Posted to Twitter

Social media has played a key role in drumming up excitement for the 2012 London Olympic Games, but just what kind of information and observations athletes are allowed to post and not post is getting, well, complicated. One day after a Greek triple jumper was pulled from her Olympics team for a racist tweet, two other athletes are coming under fire for tweeting photos of their Olympic Village passes. Authorities view the photos as a serious security threat. Conceivably someone could use the athletes' Twitter images to create a counterfeit pass.

Carli Lloyd, a star midfielder on the U.S. women's soccer team, tweeted a shot of her badge to 51,000 followers. Zac Purchase, a British rower, tweeted two photos, one of his pass and another of his "Olympic Identity and Accreditation Card."

Many athletes have been using social media to give followers and friends a behind-the-scenes look at their Olympics journeys. The International Olympic Committee has even dubbed the games the "social media Olympics." At the same time, the IOC released four pages of social media guidelines about what participants are permitted to reveal.

Both Lloyd and Purchase have since taken down their Twitter pics. But as the competitions begin, it seems like those guidelines will be tricky to enforce.